Judge Chen Jinchuan It's hard to deny the influence of social media and campaigners harnessing the web to bring new voices to the debate. At the same time, this past year has seen considerable activity in the IP offices, legislatures and courts. Even at a time where the law is often derided for not moving quickly enough to keep up with developments in business and technology, the influence of those working in the traditional halls of power for intellectual property is hard to overstate. There has been a considerable amount of legislative change in the past year. Lord Younger, UK IP Minister, has had a number of notable achievements under his belt, such as the passage of the UK IP Act 2014. The new law, which received Royal Assent in May, makes a number of minor changes to streamline processes, but also notably introduces criminal sanctions for design patent infringement. Furthermore, the IP Act takes a number of steps towards preparing the UK for the Unitary Patent.